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Defense Department Announces Next Iraq Troop Rotation

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2007  Defense Department officials today announced the next 10 Army brigade combat teams to deploy to Iraq to replace units currently operating there.

The announcement affects about 35,000 active-duty troops, who all will deploy between August and the year’s end to serve as replacement forces for those returning home, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

The units will deploy for up to 15 months.

Whitman emphasized that the announcement is unrelated to the troop surge under way to increase security in and around Baghdad.

“Let me be real clear about this,” he said. “This deployment … is not a decision with respect to the surge. It is simply identifying the next 10 units that will receive deployment orders and to provide the kind of predictability” they need to prepare.

Any decision regarding the surge will be based “entirely upon the conditions on the ground,” Whitman said.

Army Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, is expected to assess those conditions later this year and make recommendations regarding the surge to the commander of U.S. Central Command, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defense secretary and president, Whitman said.